Disharmony Aside, Local's Hopefuls Agree Contract Is Critical

With less than a week before members of the shipyard's largest union go to the polls, more than a dozen candidates, supporters and friends blanketed the sidewalk and stuffed fliers into the hands of workers entering the yard.

It's a campaign marked by a rift in leadership of Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers union, with the vice president of the local challenging his former running mate, incumbent President Raymond H. Coppedge.

But the fliers passed out last Thursday morning appeared to have little impact on many of the workers, who just tossed them into two overflowing trash cans near the gates.

Members of Local 8888, which represents more than 60 percent of the shipyard's 21,000 workers, will go to the polls Wednesday to select officers who will lead them through what promises to be a difficult contract negotiation later this year. Those elected will serve through 1997.

Four men - Coppedge, incumbent vice president Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Crudup and Bobby D. Padgett - are vying for the top post.

Union members nominated the slate at a meeting last month.

The election comes less than three weeks after the union lost a major battle with the yard over whether the company could disregard seniority when it laid off some workers.

Late last month, an arbiter hearing a union complaint ruled that the shipyard could, in some cases, lay off senior employees to keep junior workers with special skills and abilities.

Before the ruling, Coppedge had said the union would be in "deep trouble" if the shipyard were permitted to consider skill and ability rather than just seniority when laying off workers. He has since declined to discuss the impact of the arbiter's decision, which could have affected more than 120 current and former workers. The decision is binding on the yard and union.

In just a few months, the local's officers will go to the bargaining table to negotiate a new contract with the shipyard. The current contract, negotiated before Coppedge took over as president of the union three years ago, expires on Feb. 5, 1995.

Yard executives have suggested that they may ask production workers to give up some benefits, as salaried employees have already done. Earlier this year, the yard stripped salaried workers of some time-off benefits, drawn from a combination of vacation, personal days and Christmas shut-down holidays, to save money.

At that time, William Fricks, yard executive vice president, said benefits cuts for employees represented by the union were "subject to negotiations."

Negotiating a contract that retains existing benefits should be the top priority for the new president, according to candidates Wilson and Padgett.

Candidates Cruddup and Coppedge declined to discuss their platforms. But Coppedge has said in the past that a good contract is essential, and a Cruddup supporter says his candidate also considers contract negotiations important.

At least two of the candidates promised to go beyond retaining benefits and to fight to increase benefits the company provides its blue-collar workers.

"I know what they have done to management, and I don't want that to happen to us," Wilson said. "I think we can improve our benefits."

Padgett also said he hopes to negotiate a contract with increased benefits, including getting sickness and accident pay for employees.

Benefits are also a top priority for workers who were interviewed; they said they would support the man they think can come out of the bargaining with the best possible contract.

"It's important that we get good leadership because contract time is here again," said Lettie Murphy, who has worked for the shipyard for 17 years.

All of the presidential candidates but Padgett served on the union's bargaining committee when it negotiated the current contract three years ago. Padgett's vice presidential running mate, Alton H. Glass, did serve on that 1991 negotiating committee, however.

All four candidates have said the key to successfully negotiating an acceptable contract is increasing union membership.

Because Virginia's right to work laws do not require workers who are represented by the union to belong to the group, shipyard and union officials estimate little more than half of the yard's 14,000 blue-collar workers are union members.

That percentage has not changed significantly over the years, which means union membership has declined along with the shipyard's work force.

This isn't the first time increasing membership has been a campaign issue.

In his first presidential campaign, Coppedge pledged to raise the proportion of membership among eligible employees. Coppedge won't say exactly what percentage of workers are members, but officials estimate that membership levels have dipped since he took office.